Franny Robinson: Rescue Mission
by PolarBearMagus
Summary: Franny is determined to go on a rescue mission...and drag Lewis into it as well!
1. Mission

_A/N: First _Meet the Robinsons_ fanfic! I saw the movie, loved it, wanted to write something Lewis and Franny related, couldn't think of anything good, gave up, and then THIS hit me. Ok, and I know Franny's not a Robinson yet, but it sounded cool in my head.  
_

_So…if people are interested, I'll continue it, if not, oh well. If I do continue, I can promise Wilbur will show up to help (because let's face it, he's awesome) though hopefully it won't be in a cliché way. Ok, so, let me know if you want to see more!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Meet the Robinsons or anything related._

Cornelius Robinson twisted the last screw into place and sat back to survey his work. Yes, that should do it.

This was his tenth model for a smart lamp, which could adjust itself to give you the right amount of light from the right angle. He knew it would be an advantage when he was working all night.

"And now," he muttered, "to test it."

He flipped on the switch, and the light bulb flickered a few times before emitting a level low-intensity light. The lamp twisted itself to look up at its creator. Cornelius thought it seemed rather shy.

"Hello," he said with a little wave.

The light flickered, which Cornelius assumed was the lamp's way of communicating. He grinned. So far, so good.

He sat down at his desk, picked up a pencil, and made as if to write something in his notebook. A dark shadow from his arm spread across the page.

The lamp looked over at him, then extended spidery legs from its base and scrambled across the desk to a better position, then brightened the light so that he could see to write, but wasn't blinded by the glare from the page or the light bulb.

Cornelius swelled with pride. "I think you're ready, little fella," he said fondly to the lamp. It flickered at him twice. In agreement, he hoped.

A door slammed somewhere downstairs. There was incoherent shouting. Then someone was running up the stairs. Cornelius stood up, and out of the corner of his eye saw the lamp duck behind a pile of books.

"No dear, wait!" his mom shouted. "Cornelius is –"

His door flew open. Franny stood there, glaring at him and gasping for breath.

Cornelius had the craziest thought that if he stayed still, she wouldn't see him.

His mom, slightly concerned, poked her head around the door. "Sorry Cornelius, I hope we're not disturbing you."

"Oh, no, I – I just finished," he said, still wishing that Franny would stop looking at him like that.

"Oh wonderful!" his mom cried, grinning like the proud mom she was. "Did the new base help? I really thought that the problem was properly compensating for the top-heaviness of the –"

"Cornelius," snarled Franny.

He gulped.

His mom gave a little laugh. "Oh, was that the oven? Silly me, I'll just go turn that off, shall I?" And she whipped out of sight.

"Uh…Franny?" he said. He resisted the urge to back up until he hit the opposite wall.

"You…" she said. She stepped towards him.

If it had been storming right now, Cornelius would not have been surprised if lightning had flashed across the room. As it was, on this clear blue-sky day, he couldn't help backing up a step or two.

"Um…do you want to see my new smart lamp?" he asked desperately. The said lamp was cowering under some blueprints he'd drawn up the other day.

That seemed to shake her into speech. "Do you know what they do at that school?" she whispered dangerously.

"Uh…teach?" he guessed.

"Do you know what they're making us do?"

"Learn?"

"Do you know what we're dissecting on Monday?!"

"Um…" His eyes widened as realization hit him.

"_**FROGS!**_" she shrieked. "They've killed innocent frogs and are forcing us to mutilate their bodies! Don't they have any respect?! Don't they know what they're doing?!"

Cornelius wanted to tell her that they were just frogs. But then he heard an echo from the past, from the future.

_Even when I'm wrong…I'm right_.

"Y-you're right," he stammered.

Franny looked up sharply. She saw him for the first time since she'd entered the room. She blinked up at him much like his smart lamp had done.

"It's wrong," he added on a whim. "Someone should do something about it."

"Exactly!" Franny cried.

"Yeah, exac – what?!"

"Prepare yourself, Cornelius," Franny told him. "Because we're going…on a rescue mission!"


	2. Plan A

"Okay, remember," said Franny. The last class on Friday had just let out, and the weekend had started. Cornelius and Franny were slowly making their way down the hall to the science room. "They keep the frogs in the back room, in a large plastic container. They won't have killed them yet, they need them to be fresh, and –"

"Franny?"

Cornelius tried to ignore the twisting in his gut as Franny looked up at him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.

In answer, she raised her arm as if to karate chop him.

"Okay, okay, you're sure!"

She lowered her arm and he sighed in relief.

"This is it," she told him. They were standing around the corner from the science room. Cornelius poked his head around the corner.

"The door's open," he said in a low voice.

"Where's Mr. Harrison?"

"I don't see him."

They glanced at each other. They nodded.

Cornelius and Franny ducked into the classroom. It was empty, but Mr. Harrison's papers were still on his desk.

"We don't have long," Cornelius warned. He knelt by the storage door in the back of the room and pulled out his latest invention. He placed it on the keyhole and twisted the knob.

It whirred and clicked. He could hear different parts of the lock being pushed into place.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Franny hissed. She was keeping a lookout at the door.

"Just a little more…" Cornelius muttered, half assuring Franny and half coaxing the lockpick.

The lock clicked. The lockpick dinged. The door swung out towards him.

"We're in!" he announced. He pocketed his invention.

Franny rushed over and they entered the storage room. It was rows of shelves stacked with cardboard boxes overflowing with different materials. Glass and plastic chemistry flasks lined the sinks, waiting to be washed. And in the back was a large fish-tank filled with frogs.

Franny gasped. "Don't worry, I'll get you out!" she cried. She ran over and began taking off the lid. It was wedged. "Cornelius, help me!"

"What are you doing here?" asked a voice behind and above him.

Cornelius turned around. Mr. Harrison was standing between him and the door, and he did not look happy. He rather looked like an owl that had been drenched in water, and knew_ you_ had been the one to dump the bucket over him.

"Students aren't allowed back here, you should know that, Mr. Robinson."

"We're sorry, Mr. Harrison, it's just that Franny lost her…uh…lost her…"

"Contacts!" Franny supplied.

Cornelius glanced back. Luckily she had been smart enough to stop tugging at the fish-tank lid. But it was already half off.

"But we found them," she was saying, "and they're not broken, so we'll just be going now." She walked over, grabbed Cornelius' arm. She would have pushed past Mr. Harrison, but he stood aside to let them pass. Cornelius was amazed that they were actually getting away with it too, which was –

"Mr. Robinson."

He froze. He turned around.

"Yes, Mr. Harrison?"

"You may not be in my class yet," Mr. Harrison said. "But your reputation precedes you. I _know_ I locked the door to the storage room. I _know_ you used one of your inventions to unlock it. So you're going to hand it over to me, right now, and I won't have to report this little incident to the principal or your parents." He held out a talon-like hand.

Franny glared at Mr. Harrison. She tried to keep her hold on Cornelius, but he shook her off. Reluctantly, he handed over his automatic lockpick.

"Very good," said the science teacher. "And I will see both of you after school on Monday in detention."

"What?!" shouted Franny. "We didn't _do _anything!"

"But not for lack of trying, Miss," he reminded her. "Now go home, and enjoy your weekend."

Franny fumed all the way down the hall and out of the building. She grumbled to herself as they walked down the sidewalk, and Cornelius heard random words like "frogs", "stupid", and "science teacher". But Cornelius was thinking.

"Franny," he finally said. "How important is this to you? Freeing the frogs, I mean."

"Very."

"Well, yeah, but _how _important is it?"

She scowled. "I'm going to rescue them, no matter what. No stupid science teacher and his threats are going to stop me."

"Okay," said Cornelius, not believing his own decision. "Then we're going to need some back-up."

_A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I really appreciate it! This chapter was kind of last-second, I realized they should probably try to rescue the frogs normally first…Also, Mr. Harrison doesn't know Franny's last name because he doesn't know who she is (he just knows who Lewis is, being a genius and all). Then again, I don't know Franny's last name, so if anyone knows and can tell me, that'd be great. Stay tuned!_


	3. Recruit

"Ugh!" cried Franny. She was lying on her back on Cornelius' bed and bouncing a tennis ball against the ceiling. "How is this helping, exactly?"

Cornelius was scribbling furiously at his desk. The smart-lamp kept having to twist around to accommodate for his sudden movements: reaching across for a notebook here, checking a clock there.

"_Ugh!_" cried Franny again. She considered chucking the tennis ball at Cornelius' fat head.

"Done!"

"What's done?" she asked, forgetting about the tennis ball. It rolled across the floor and bumped into the desk. The smart-lamp peered over the side to watch it.

"Now I just need to find a safe place..." Cornelius mumbled. "Aha!" He placed it carefully in the right-hand upper drawer.

He spun around in his chair to face Franny, who was still sitting anxiously on his bed. He grinned.

"Our back-up will arrive in three…two…" He pointed at the door.

WHAM!

The door burst open to reveal a gangly boy carrying a very large box crammed with things Franny had never seen before. The box was labeled "Rescue Mission."

"All right," said an arrogant voice from behind the box, "I've got your doodads, your whatchamacallits, and your thingamabobs all here, just like you asked." He let the box drop to the floor with a crash. Cornelius winced, but couldn't stop the grin spreading further across his face. The new arrival pretended to examine his fingernails. "Not to mention your perfectly brilliant s-"

He stopped. He and Franny stared at each other from across the room for one long, painful moment.

"YOU!" they shouted, pointing at each other.

"You know each other?!" asked Cornelius in horror.

"She's the annoying little girl from the Science Fair!"

"He's the obnoxious jerk who knocked over my frogs!"

"You were interrupting a very important mission!"

"Well my frogs could have been stepped on!"

"Humph!" They crossed their arms and turned away from each other.

"Uh…" said Cornelius. This wasn't going as he'd expected. "Wilbur, this is Franny. You know, _Franny_?"

Cornelius watched everything click into place in Wilbur's mind and decided to allow him a few seconds to let it sink in.

"Franny, this is Wilbur." Wilbur promptly pulled one of the inventions onto his head and began beating it with a giant wooden spoon. Cornelius was pretty sure he could hear frustrated screaming.

Franny raised an eyebrow. "Where did he come from again?"

"Wilbur's…an old friend." Cornelius flinched as the invention shattered. At least it had already been broken before Wilbur had gotten his hands on it.

"Well, he's not _my _friend," she protested.

Wilbur wandered over, removing pieces of invention stuck to his t-shirt or hair.

"Da – I mean," Wilbur laughed nervously, "Lewis? We need to talk." He dragged Cornelius over to the door, shoved him through, and slammed it shut behind them.

Franny wrinkled her nose. "Lewis?"

Out in the hallway, Cornelius pushed Wilbur away, asking, "Is that any way to treat your father?" Wilbur didn't seem to notice.

"That's my _mom_ in there!" Wilbur hissed. "What's she doing here? I thought you said we were going on a rescue mission!"

"We are," Cornelius said. "With her."

"No! No way! I'm not doing it!"

"Why not?" asked Cornelius, crossing his arms.

"She's. My. Mom," Wilbur repeated. "It's one thing for _you_ to know about me, but if _she_ finds out she's going to kill me! She'll kill me, and then Carl will serve me at dinner, and then everyone will throw me around like a football!"

Cornelius rolled his eyes.

"Okay, maybe not a football. More like a baseball. And by baseball, I mean –"

"I know what baseball is!"

"Not the way my family plays it."

"I think you're over-reacting," Cornelius said, "Franny's really nice."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Wilbur said in a mocking voice. "You've known her what, two years?"

"Two and a half," Cornelius mumbled.

"Yeah, well I got ELEVEN YEARS on you, buster! I think I know Mrs. Franny Robinson a whole lot better than you do, and she will turn me into a marionette and force me to enact horrible skits that involve milkmaids and…and yodeling! I CAN'T YODEL AGAIN!"

"Ok, now I know you're over-reacting."

"I have no choice!" Wilbur declared dramatically. "I must –"

"Cornelius?"

The boys spun around guiltily. Franny was standing in the doorway.

She glared at Wilbur, and marched over until she was standing three feet away. Then she stuck out her hand.

"If we're going to be working together, then we can at least have a truce," she grumbled. "If Cornelius trusts you, then I trust you."

Wilbur regarded her hand suspiciously.

"You're supposed to shake it!" she informed him.

Wilbur made a face, but he shook her hand.

"Good. Now I don't want to see you two goofing off, we have a lot of work to do." And she marched back into Cornelius' room. They could hear her sorting through the box of inventions with a loud clanking.

"Ahem," said Wilbur. "As I was saying, I have no choice! I must stay."

Cornelius raised an eyebrow.

"What? She made a truce now, it's like a promise. Leaving would break the promise. So I have to stay and help save these frog…things…" He started for the room.

"What if she kills you and uses you as a baseball?" Cornelius asked dryly.

"Well," Wilbur admitted with a side-long grin, "I'm pretty sure it'd be more like a basketball, so I've got nothing to worry about, really."

He strolled into the room. His younger mother was trying on a very large and particularly laser-friendly helmet.

"Yup," he repeated slowly to himself, "Nothing to worry about…"

_A/N: Yay, Wilbur! I think he has some of the most ridiculous dialogue I have ever written. Also, Franny seems to lose her temper a lot in these chapters. I swear it's just because she's stressed out over the frogs. I don't normally imagine her this way. Hopefully she'll feel better after the frogs are rescued…_


	4. Plan B

_A/N: Sorry I've taken forever to update. A combination of writer's block and real life was my downfall. _

* * *

The school looked as it did on every other night. Peaceful…sleepy…empty…except –

"Wilbur RUN!"

Wilbur ran. He turned down the English hallway, sliding on the tile floor as he rounded the corner. He slammed into a row of lockers.

"Yeah Dad," he grumbled as he pushed off and bolted down the hall. "Anti-friction shoes sound like a blast! Can I have a pair?"

He slid around another corner, timing it so he could push off the lockers instead of crashing into them. This looked like the art department. There were hand-painted murals of dancing children and smiling suns. _What _grade _are these people in?_ he asked incredulously.

An explosion rocked the school. Wilbur could see the flicker of firelight down the next hallway.

_That's it_, he decided. _Time to get serious_.

* * *

EARLIER THAT EVENING

* * *

"For the last time," Cornelius said sternly. "No, you are _not _coming with us."

The smart lamp wilted. It kept trying to follow them out the door. Cornelius shook a finger at it for good measure, and then closed the door in its face with a soft click.

"Hurry up!" Wilbur stage whispered.

Cornelius ran after them, half-crouching in an instinctive attempt to reduce the risk of being spotted, even though his was the only house in the area.

Franny was leading the charge, the laser-friendly helmet securely fastened to her head. She and the others were carrying more of Cornelius' future inventions that he had asked Wilbur to bring, knowing he'd have at least thirty years to actually invent what he was asking for.

Wilbur beeped a remote, and the time machine sitting on the lawn turned visible. Cornelius was worried Franny would be suspicious, but she was so distracted by their rescue mission she accepted their story (that all of the new inventions had come from Wilbur's dad, which wasn't even a lie) with the smallest of nods.

They took off silently and flew over the town. Cornelius found himself wishing they could just go to the future to visit the rest of the Robinsons. He shoved the dangerous thought away and reviewed his plan over and over. It was a sign of how tense the group was that Wilbur didn't talk once during the flight.

He landed the time machine outside the entrance of the school, and the three climbed out and gathered around the front doors while Cornelius put a second automatic lockpick to work, as well as another invention to disable the alarm. The science storage room was in the middle of the school; they wouldn't have been able to get to it directly by window.

The lockpick and alarm-disabler clicked and beeped at the same time. Franny wrenched open the door and the three of them raced for the science room. It was so late they didn't even see a janitor.

They slid to a halt in front of the science room. Cornelius grabbed Wilbur's shirt before he could slide past.

"I don't get it," Wilbur complained as Cornelius set the lockpick to work again. "How can I run in anti-friction shoes but not be able to stop? Isn't that a glaring contradiction?"

"It's meant to make you capable of running faster, without friction to slow you down. But you should still be able to brake. Obviously there are a few kinks to work out…"

"No, really?"

"Shush!" hissed Franny.

"By all means, keep talking." The three of them spun around. Mr. Harrison was standing behind them, smiling as pleasantly as if they were all eating lunch. At a nice restaurant even. "You won't be able to pick the lock this time," he added. The lockpick dinged its failure as if in agreement.

Mr. Harrison reached out two talon-like hands and gripped Cornelius' and Franny's shoulders. "Detention for breaking and entering school grounds, and attempting to – "

Franny kicked him in the shin. Cornelius shouted, "Wilbur RUN!" Wilbur bolted down the hallway.

Mr. Harrison doubled over in pain, his hands still locked onto the kids' shoulders. "Detention for assaulting a teacher," he gasped.

"Assault this," Franny told him, and looked at the flimsy wooden science room door.

"Franny, NO!"

TSEWW!

A laser shot from her helmet straight into the middle of the door. The explosion threw them into the lockers across the hall.

"The science door was gone" was a vast understatement. A large hole around what used to be the frame was on fire and smoke was curling down the hall.

"…for bringing lasers onto school property…" Mr. Harrison said weakly from the ground.

"Let's go, Cornelius," Franny said, helping a stunned Cornelius to his feet. "We're on a rescue mission."


	5. Plan C

_A/N: Dude, Mr. Harrison's plucky. I'm surprised he lasted this long._

* * *

Franny and Cornelius stepped through the smoldering hole that was once the science door. This side of the door was in bad shape. Half the room's desks had been thrown into the far wall. Some of the posters explaining volcanoes and photosynthesis were peeling from the heat.

"Try the lock," Franny ordered, crossing to the storage room door.

"I can't," Cornelius cried, "you just blew up my last lockpick."

"Drat," Franny said, as if she'd picked up the wrong color colored pencil by mistake. "Does this thing have any other settings?" She tapped the helmet.

TSEWW!

A laser shot across the room. It missed the door, but hit the storage room wall and the skeleton standing in front of it. They ducked as plastic bones flew over their heads.

Before the explosions had even finished, Franny was up and running. "The frogs!!"

"No, wait!"

She disappeared into the smoking storage room.

"Destruction of school property." Cornelius turned. Mr. Harrison had recovered and was blocking their escape route. _Not that Franny couldn't make more,_ Cornelius thought wildly.

"Mr. Harrison, please," he tried to reason. "We just don't want the frogs to be killed. We didn't want to destroy school property."

"If you didn't want to destroy school property," the old teacher replied, "why did you bring a laser gun on your 'rescue mission?'"

"It's not a gun, it's a helmet," Cornelius protested, as if it really mattered.

A loud thunk came from the storage room. Frogs started leaping into the ruins of the science room, going every which way like they didn't know they were free. Which, Cornelius realized, they didn't.

Mr. Harrison's eyes bulged. Cornelius thought they were going to pop out of his head when a dark figure appeared in the fiery doorway.

"Never fear, citizens!" it cried. "I am here to save the day!"

Wilbur was standing in what could only be termed a hero-stance, draped in a make-shift cape of hand-painted murals and holding an anonymous student's clay statue in his hand.

Cornelius completely lost his head. "Are you _trying _to make sure I don't have any kids?!"

The school's smoke detectors finally went off. The alarm was very loud, but years of fire drills meant everyone completely ignored the sound.

"Who are you?" Mr. Harrison yelled to the boy in the cape.

"Wilbur Robinson!" he shouted. The teacher was kind of creeping him out.

"Mr. Robinson," the teacher bellowed. "Detention for assisting –"

"I don't even _go _to this school!"

Mr. Harrison looked like he was about to burst.

"All three of you will serve detentions for destroying – "

"Oh shut up!" screamed Franny. Somehow, she had gotten behind Mr. Harrison. She jumped. Her leg snapped out and caught Mr. Harrison in the back. His eyes rolled up and he collapsed. Franny landed, fists up and ready for a counter-attack that never came.

Cornelius' jaw dropped.

"Okay that does it," Wilbur said loud enough for only Cornelius to hear, "my mom is officially cool."

"Get the frogs!" she ordered. "The fire department will be here any second."

"I dunno," said Wilbur, clearly reluctant to ditch the cape. "It could still be just a drill."

"NOW!" both of his future parents shouted.

They scrambled around the room, trying to assemble the frogs as close together as possible. The frogs did not cooperate, jumping away whenever they felt like it. Finally every one was in place.

"What happened to the tank?" asked Cornelius.

"It broke!" cried Franny. He glared at her. "That thing was heavy!"

"Never mind," he said, and brought out a metallic pen. He pointed it at the group of frogs and they all froze, some in mid-hop.

"Whoa," said Wilbur. He tried to poke one.

"Here," said Franny. "Get Mr. Harrison." She handed her own freeze-pen to Wilbur. He was about to argue when he met her icy stare.

"Yes, ma'am."

He froze Mr. Harrison and easily lifted him off the ground. Cornelius handed the frog pen to Franny.

"Time to go!" Cornelius yelled over the alarm, and they dashed out of the ruined science room. The fire had worn itself out but it had left a lot of smoke in the hallways. Wilbur couldn't see where he was going, and spent more time ramming himself and Mr. Harrison's head into lockers and walls than running. Franny was very careful not to jostle the frogs.

They were outside again, in fresh clean air, where they could clearly hear the sirens of the fire trucks. "What do I do with him?" asked Wilbur.

"Throw him in a bush," Franny suggested.

Cornelius helped lower Mr. Harrison onto the middle of the sidewalk, where the firefighters would be sure to see him.

"Where's the hovercar?" Franny asked, starting to panic now.

"Let the frogs go already!" Wilbur said.

Cornelius took the keys from him and turned the time machine visible. He clamored up and looked for the fire trucks.

"Franny, hurry up, they're almost here!"

"Just put them down, they're frogs, they know what to do."

"No! They'll get caught again, I'm taking them with us."

She tried to slide over to the time machine, eyes on the frogs to make sure she didn't lose or hurt any.

"Franny, come ON!"

She was still maneuvering the frozen frogs into the machine when the first fire truck pulled up into the bus lane. Wilbur pushed a series of buttons and the engine began to grow louder, raring to fly away from this mess.

The truck stopped and firemen started piling out. "Hey what the-"

A bright light snapped on in front of their faces. They yelled and dropped back, clutching their eyes.

Cornelius, helping Franny into the machine, spotted the smart lamp on the sidewalk between them and the firefighters. Somehow he had gotten his light to be stadium-bright, an effective shield against prying eyes. No one would remember the three kids, frozen frogs, and time machine.

Wilbur took off. "No!" said Cornelius. "We have to get the lamp!"

"He'll be fine, get him tomorrow."

FWOOSH!

The firemen had turned the hose on the thing. The water picked up the lamp, shorted its circuits, and smashed him into the side of the time machine. Cornelius slipped out his hand, grabbed its twisty neck, and pulled it into the machine. He cradled it on his lap.

"Thank you," he told it. Its head slowly moved back to see its master, and then it went limp. "I'll fix you tomorrow," Cornelius promised.

"Get those frogs away from my controls!" Wilbur screeched. "Do you want us to crash?" He didn't see Franny stick out her tongue as she gathered up the frogs, but Cornelius did.

They landed back at the Robinson house. Franny released the frogs in the nearby woods with great ceremony. The boys tried not to laugh or get caught rolling their eyes.

When the last frog was out of sight, she turned back to them. First she hugged Cornelius, then Wilbur. Then she set off for the time machine.

"I think you're taking her home," Cornelius said with a grin.

Wilbur chose to ignore this comment.

"Well Dad, looks like another good day for us. We traveled through time, met relatives who don't know about us, and saved the world."

"The world? Was Mr. Harrison and his legion of undead dissected frogs going to take it over?"

"Ah yes, you laugh now," Wilbur said gravely, "but see what happens the next time you need help and I don't show up."

"Yeah. And then you'll get sucked into another swirling time paradox of doom because my life changed so drastically I never had a son in the first place."

"Exactly!" said Wilbur. He frowned. "Which is why I must continue flying back now and again. Just to make sure you're on the right path, you understand. It's all in the duty of self-preservation."

They smiled and hugged. "See ya around, Dad."

"Hey!" called Franny. "I would like to go home now!"

"Now this one," Wilbur continued, sticking his thumb at her as he walked backwards, "she's the wild card. You might not want to hang out with her for too much longer, my friend. She'll turn on you. The proverbial ball and chain isn't proverbial in my house. Oh no, in fact, we have different colors to match your outfits or suit your moods. We – gah!" Franny had finally pulled him into the time machine. He saluted Cornelius, Franny waved, and then they were off.

Cornelius watched until he could no longer see them, and then turned to go in the house. The lights were on. His parents would know he had been out.

He was in so much trouble.


	6. Mission Accomplished

Monday afternoon found Cornelius and Franny in Room 203 – detention with Mr. Pace. Franny was slumped down in her seat, watching Cornelius fix the smart lamp. If Mr. Harrison had been in charge of their detentions, the smart lamp – or any other inventions – would not have been allowed. But Mr. Pace was the music teacher, and actually liked Cornelius, so he didn't mind. He actually spent most of his time chuckling about the science department getting their comeuppance.

"Cornelius?"

"Yeah?" He was poking a pair of screwdrivers around like lockpicks.

"Thanks."

He looked up, stunned out of his mechanical world. "Of course," he said with a smile. "What are friends for?"

Franny raised an eyebrow. "Well, I know what they're _not _for. Friends aren't supposed to blow stuff up in each other's faces. Sorry I've been crazy all week."

Cornelius shook his head. "You were worried. And if you hadn't been all crazy, those frogs would have died. You did the right thing." Hesitantly, he took her hand.

She beamed at him, then sighed dramatically. "You won't be saying that next month. We'll both be so sick of detentions that we'll want to time-travel to the end of the school year just to make it stop."

Cornelius grinned. "That's not a bad idea."

* * *

30 YEARS LATER

* * *

Wilbur Robinson was pleased with himself. He had returned to the present – or "the future" as he thought of it now – with no major mishaps. No paradoxes, no apocalyptic explosions of the space-time continuum. He hadn't even nicked the paint on the time machine. The only thing he had to worry about now was talking his way out of that essay he was supposed to have written for today. But that was child's play.

He strolled into his classroom, prepared to deliver the perfect line –

"Mr. Robinson, you are tardy."

Wilbur did a double-take. Mr. Harrison, thirty years older and madder, was standing behind his teacher's desk. He was wearing the badge they gave to all substitute teachers. Wilbur felt all of his confidence spiral into a space-time continuum vortex.

"How are you still alive?!" he blurted. The man must be 200 by now!

"Mr. Robinson," the owl-faced Mr. Harrison repeated. "I've waited thirty years for this…detention!"

* * *

_A/N: I'm sure all of his classmates were _very _confused._


End file.
